A burgeoning local group is making moves to improve the education-to-workforce transition for students throughout the region.

The Yampa Valley Partnership for Students, Stewardship and Sustainability is a community alliance that is seeking to unite four K-12 school districts, two higher education institutions and multiple partners in industry across the Yampa Valley.

Bringing together Colorado Northwestern Community College and Colorado Mountain College with the Moffat, Routt, Hayden and South Routt school districts, the partnership’s goal is to create shared educational pathways and career connections for students — with the ultimate hope of retaining local talent and contributing to a more resilient region.

Jessica Counts, the partnership’s executive director, described how the initiative began with discussions in 2021 and formalized into a board in 2023.

“It’s a partnership that really stemmed from the identified need to connect education with industry and workforce,” Counts said. “We have a long history of sharing in the region, but it has been fragmented.”

Counts said that, while the two colleges flanking either end of the valley have historically enjoyed a collaborative relationship, there hasn’t been much crossover between the colleges and the valley’s K-12 districts.

The group also noticed a trend of local students leaving the area to find work outside the community once they complete their studies, with Counts sharing that this has led to an additional goal of “keeping homegrown talent in the valley.”

Counts added that, early on, the partnership was catalyzed by discussions between key leaders from the region’s educational organizations and community partners concerning regional aspirations and values.

“It’s not a secret that we have a lot of different views and backgrounds just within the small region of the Yampa Valley, and we really wanted to focus on the things that unite us instead of those things that separate us,” Counts said.

The discussions ultimately resulted in a focus on sustainable pathways and educational career pathways, with the current priorities including natural resources and agriculture, construction trades and health care.

Counts also nodded to the partnership’s lengthy moniker, noting that “students, stewardship and sustainability were really the three things that everybody could get behind.”

Counts recalled that she was initially hesitant about the partnership when she was brought on as part of its early steering committee, but as she learned more about the concept, she began to see its potential benefit as a community resource.

The partnership’s efforts have already been rewarded with significant grants to further its mission.

The first grant came from the Colorado Department of Education in support of rural communities collaborating to create high-quality programs. Last month, the group received a seed grant for more than $2.9 million from the state’s Opportunity Now program, which awards groups for innovative solutions to meet Colorado’s workforce needs and spur transformative change in education-to-employment pathways.

The funding from the seed grant will be distributed across the Western Slope, with approximately $1 million allocated to support the Yampa Valley.

Board member Jennifer Holloway underscored the importance of the partnership’s efforts to integrate learning pathways at a younger age.

“What we’re trying to do is get kids field experience in the industries so that they have a really good idea of what they want to do with their lives before they get into college or event before they get into high school,” Holloway said. “We want all the kids in the valley to benefit from this.”